Connell was allegedly a linchpin in the biggest maze of White House scandal this country's ever seen, yet the national news media is a no-show.

What caused Connell's crash is only one piece of this story. One that, as in many such stories, may or may never be confirmed. Pilot error? Aircraft malfunction? Weather conditions? Foul play? Suicide? Heart attack? A thorough investigation needs to take place. Part of what the media should be doing is making sure that happens.

But everything that has already been confirmed, having nothing to do with the crash, should also have the national media covering this with at least as much gusto as "BlaggoGate" or, say, Britney's comeback or Brangelina's pre-nup. So far, though, in a replay of journalistic fecklessness rife during the Bush years, mum's the word.

Nonetheless, it's still been fairly quiet in the bulk of the MSM, especially in the broadcast MSM, and especially given the high-ranks of Connell, who had been the chief IT consultant for Karl Rove, had received millions creating websites for the Bushes, McCain, the Swiftboaters, the state of OH and dozens of other GOP campaigns, as well as having created the network firewalls for top Congressional committees (for which his company reportedly received a sweetheart, no-bid contract) and the controversial alternate email server used by the White House and at the center of the US Attorney purge scandal.

Let's hope the AP/CBS report will now spur more MSM coverage...just in time to be lost in the XMas news hole, of course.

A few more odds and ends of note today on this matter, as we head into that news hole...

In our coverage yesterday, we noted that Cliff Arnebeck was scheduled to appear on last night's Lou Dobbs Tonight on CNN. Arnebeck is the attorney who had recently subpeonaed and deposed Connell in the ongoing federal election fraud conspiracy case in Ohio. He had also sought protection for Connell from the U.S. AG after threats against him and wife, reportedly, by Karl Rove. The segment did not appear as expected on Dobbs last night. We inquired with Arnebeck today to find out what happened, and he reported back "They filmed me for about 45 minutes yesterday. The producer indicated it was part of a story they were developing which would air later." We'll see how much later that is, and will try to run it here when/if the segment airs.

Also of interesting note, to our knowledge, neither the White House, nor Karl Rove, nor any other RNC officials have publicly issued a statement of condolence for Connell. Given his integral position within the GOP --- for example, the Bush/Cheney '04 campaign paid him some $800k in 2004, according to campaign records --- that seems a bit odd.

Finally...McClatchy's Washington Bureau, in an unbylined blog item, covered the "conspiracy buzz" around Connell's death last night. How one covers an apparent criminal conspiracy --- one that is largely acknowledged, at the very least, as having been at the heart of the disappearing WH email scandal and US Attorney purge --- without it being seen as "conspiracy theory" (in the dismissive sense), we couldn't tell you. But the apparent moral here: If you want to pull off something criminally, do it as a conspiracy with several others, so that journalistic investigations of those crimes can later be sloughed off as "conspiracy theories". The corporate mainstream media --- even the, usually, rather good reporters at McClatchy --- will be all too happy to help marginalize the entire affair, apparently.

As long promised, The BRAD BLOG has covered your electoral system 2008, fiercely and independently, like no other media outlet in the nation. Please support our work with a donation to help us keep going. If you like, we'll send you some great, award-winning election integrity documentary films in return! Details on that right here...

Well, there is no need for me to qualify my statements as conspiracy theory here involving Corporate Media. Five corporations own most of it, those corporations have profited handsomely from BushCo and are republican, and they've obviously received their no-talking points.

I am further shocked by one of the larger, so-called "progressive" blogs out there that is increasingly known as the blog that censors for no apparent reason. It has buried news of this story since it happened; THAT is not a normal thing to do, not at all normal. I've since taken that blog off of my favorites list. People in the blogosphere should start expressing outrage over the way that blog is censoring news and opinion.

This Connell story infuriates me because it has all the signs of being anything but an accident...and yet the Big Boys and Girls in media are just not interested. And the silence from the republicans is so telling.

Don't forget to mention that Connell was not only involved with switching over the WH email system during the start of the Iraq war.. He also converted the House.gov IT system and had his own servers inside the House firewall.

Not to mention the work he did for Dept of Energy (think Enron), the OFHEO which is Fannie/Freddie oversight, he also was connected to people who were involved with privatizing the FL IT. He set up websites for Ohio 2001 redistricting and also in Texas.

Not only was Rove's private email probably used to improperly send classified emails, but he had inside access to sensitive House subcommittees and DOE websites. Who knows the amount of insider access that was improperly set up.

This was a huge National Security issue and it still is thanks to all the stuff SMARTech still has access to.

KGO radio, a corporate "news talk" station in San Francisco, interviewed me very late last night about the Minnesota recount and the Connell story. That interview is archived online for one week. Click on Tuesday. Then go to "11:00 p.m. - mid." and choose listen or download.

All the information in the interview has been previously seen on BRAD BLOG, Raw Story, etc. I add it here only because it's another place the story was covered on the corporate media, for those keeping track.

Still No Word for POTUS of the loss of his good friend MIKE CONNELL
Who died early Friday Dec 19 2008 Around 5:44 (Not 6:00)On his way home for christmas to be with his family ,a wife and four children.

I know. In the previous thread I waxed on re: how our formerly progressive, exotic, new media tart has buried this story, how I'm having serious issues with her...issues. When did she go all Cosmo?

This is the second strike against our old, slightly-Greek-y, cerebral celeb pal. I boycotted HUFFPO for about a year after she dissed exit polls, and actually told her readers not to participate in them.

Later, she seemed to retract the most damning mis-information, so I gave her another chance.
Now this. These two gross failures of my "new media" as the last remaining shreds of our fourth estate, combined with the most ABSURD stories she's posting IN THE PLACE of real news, day after day; screaming headlines that bleakly reek of HBO's old comedy series "Not Necessarily the News", except HUFFPO is not necessarily funny.

If only she did Sniglets.

I learned recently that certain "hot words" are automatically rejected for posting in any of their threads. I don't remember which ones, but I think it's words like "conspiracy" or "NWO"...so, it's not exactly the interactive, lil' slice of democratic heaven that we have here at Bradblog.

HuffPo or rather Zsa Zsa made Saturday Night Live as a dimwit who won't stop babbling. Unfortunately, some people take her site seriously. It's always been conservative with a little criticism thrown in just to appear progressive. She never mentions 9/11 or any new developments like the recent lawsuit of the brave April Gallop which was on Raw and Alex Jones. But McConnell should have had at least a condolence statement from White House - but then all the media would have been obligated to carry it. How could Raw Story have said McConnell and his wife seemed nice and over their heads? They were doing diryt deeds for the neocons for years......

Keith Olbermann is basically on vacation this week and I emailed his countdown show sunday about Connell's death and how his life had been threatened but they won't touch the story. Monday's night show was the best of KO's stories from 2008. Last night he had a substitute and will probably have another sub tonight. So, if they don't cover the news story by Mon/Tues, the story is too old for them.

The Countdown producers refuse to touch upon anything related to the theft of the Ohio Nov 2004 election or the consequences thereof or the stealing of elections. They prefer to be a sort of political newshow version of PEOPLE magazine in which keith can continue to harp upon the stupidity of various GOP figures like sarah palin, the gift that keeps giving. The show is very clever in that it is funny, and does cover the big "political" stories but stays away from non-mainstream media stories like Mike Connell's death like it was the black plague. keith from time to time will gather up the courage to make his special comment about something.

Rachel Maddow's show may have mentioned very briefly the death of Mike Connell but didn't go into much detail. her email address is rachel@msnbc.com . You'll have better luck emailing her.

Too bad about HuffPo, they just got millions of dollars of a capital infusion from some investors, so that's a shame they won't include this story.

Again the crime of this century that is not spoken about on any mainstream media news show is the theft of the Nov 2004 Ohio election. It is now "safe" to talk about how the GOP seized victory by having their guy Scalia in the Supreme Court actually interfere with State's right to stop the State of Florida from recounting the votes after Gore was ahead.

No one has brought up the possibility that Connell could have been killed because he refused to help Rove-Cheney-McCain steal the nov 2008 election after McCain had declared victory 2 weeks before on "meet the press" and said he was going to win afterall, a "come back from behind" victory, late in the evening of nov 4th. Perhaps Connell finally saw who he was dealing with: not conservative pro-lifers but something much more sinister.

To: Brad
Keep up the great work and heal that wrist of your! Also, I have recently heard that one of the main culprits of carpal tunnel syndrome is not the typing but the use of the damn mouse and the clicking of the index finger really screws up the muscles in the neck/shoulders/arm. f yi

Nothing can be done about media such as ours? I've never read anyone writing about any solutions. None. And yet, after thorough and complete campaign and lobbying finance reform (i.e., no lobbying money ever, none, zero, to any politician for any reason), after election fraud, comes television & cable news reform (if you consistently omit or lie about the fact, your license goes poof!). For a democracy cannot endure in an environment of official lies.

"...there was no immediate evidence of wrong-doing or sabotage. Nonetheless, Connell's death provoked a groundswell of commentary among conspiracy theorists on the web, including Larisa Alexandrovna, Raw Story, Velvet Revolution, ePluribus Media, and TheZoo."

(What? No mention of Brad?!)

"The most common unsubstantiated allegation on these sites is that Connell was about to provide crucial information in the case of alleged vote fraud in the 2004 Ohio presidential contest..."

Hm. Where does he get off using "unsubstantiated"?
While it's unknown what Connell was about to do, presuming he wasn't going to provide crucial information is just as "unsubstantiated."

"In a telephone interview, Connell's wife Heather adamantly declared "he was a good man. He did nothing wrong. He wasn't about to talk, because there was nothing to talk about. Nobody did anything wrong. We won the elction fair and square. Deal with it." Asked if he ever spoke about the disputed emails, Heather Connell said "I have no clue about that. I just know it's not him."

You know, you'd THINK that with all their coverage of ACORN, that FOX NEWS would have ONE mention of the death of such an important and beloved member of the GOP/Bush team on their website. At LEAST something mocking the tinfoil hat-moonbat left's CRAZY conspiracy theories.

But STRANGELY, when you do a search on their site, there's NOTHING. Zip. How's THAT for curious?? LUCKILY for them, his plane crashed just days before Christmas, and no one's paying attention.

Wonder when Rove's next FOX segment will be, and what HE'LL have to say...?

joseph barney
"You know, you'd THINK that with all their coverage of ACORN, that FOX NEWS would have ONE mention of the death of such an important and beloved member of the GOP/Bush team on their website. At LEAST something mocking the tinfoil hat-moonbat left's CRAZY conspiracy theories.

But STRANGELY, when you do a search on their site, there's NOTHING. Zip. How's THAT for curious?? LUCKILY for them, his plane crashed just days before Christmas, and no one's paying attention."
Hey Bradbloggers
Anyone want to try to get the story out useing WASHINGTON JOURNAL?

UPDATE: After Prof. Edsall's article received more than 450 comments at Huffpo, most of which were quite sophisticated in their knowledge of the FACTS involved in the case and rebuked the Professor for his shoddy reporting and superfluous name-calling (even some comments in support of Larisa's work from other Huffpo bloggers citing this article as "beneath the standards of Huffpo")-- the Professor has just issued the following belated retraction:

UPDATE:

"...An earlier version of this story claimed: "Connell's death provoked a groundswell of commentary among conspiracy theorists on the web, including Larisa Alexandrovna, Raw Story, Velvet Revolution, ePluribus Media, and TheZoo."

To be fair: Larisa Alexandrovna acknowledged that suspicions that Connell's death was the result of sabotage were unproven, and she urged that empirical evidence be pursued. Her articles and those that she cites legitimately raised questions that in many cases are worthy of pursuit (See Alexandrovna's letter concerning this story here.) I regret using "conspiracy theorists" to describe Larisa Alexandrovna, Raw Story, and the others..."

I have combed through all 450 comments (most of mine are still 'pending approval', but I saw some bradbloggers comments that were surprisingly intact.) Thanks, my people! I'm slightly encouraged...

I'm upset ,Thinking that we the people (peons)just might find out that last eight years should of neverhave been. Has me pissed off!

And this peon want to make sure it NEVER happens again .. Lets say for the children.
oh and one more time!
WHITE HOUSE STONEWALLS any COMMENT ON MR.MIKE CONNELL, (IT.) GURU WHO HELP STEAL THE 2000 -2004 ELECTION FROM THE AMERICAN Peons (people)
And if not for the court case in OHIO ,mccain would be next to have won by cheating ...Think about it.

I also find it interesting that hardly any news outlets have picked up on this, including local Akron and Cleveland area papers. While my guess is that they would prefer the story never be told, I don't think it is because Rove is behind this, but rather, for the simple fact that they stole elections and tampered with democratic processes.

While I originally leaned heavily in the direction of believing the "accident" was not really an accident, the more I learn, the more I believe it was, although there are some troubling pieces here.

I looked over his flight path using the data from flighttracker as well as the climate data at the time. I even went so far as to recreate the flight in flight simulator. It definitely appears to me that the likely cause was icing, and that the reason that he had veered west of the flight path was to either find the safest place to put the plane down, or the controls became so unresponsive and/or the aerodynamics of the plane with a bunch of ice put him there. He was, it appears, lined up perfectly with the glideslope indicating he should have had no problem landing.
His avionics were state of the art - the navigational system made it virtually impossible to get lost, and he was lined up with the runway almost perfectly until problems occured.

There are a few things however that really bother me - some that I think Larissa also mentioned:

1. Why was the NTSB so quick to rule out icing?
Under the circumstances and from all preliminarily available data, icing does seem to be the most reasonable assumption. What do they know?
2. How could the trooper possibly have identified Connell so quickly? That fire looked pretty hot, and burned for a solid 10 minutes or more before they put the fire out. Surely his identification would have been destroyed along with the body, although they say the body was not badly burned. How can that possibly be, unless his body was ejected from the plane prior to impact/explosion? Plus, the plane was not registered in his name.
3. I'm not sure what this means, if anything, but there was a curious time frame in which flight positions were not tracked, spanning 20-30 minutes or so which seems a bit odd. Typically flight positions are recorded every 1-4 minutes, but there is a void which began as he was approaching Pittsburgh until nearing his Akron approach. Perhaps a real pilot can explain this anomaly.

There are certain aspects of this that make me wonder if his death could have been faked, as I am inclined to think Ken Lay's death was.

I will wait patiently for more info though. Hopefully we will get to hear from more eyewitnesses to the crash, and especially the ATC dialog/recordings, and of course the coroner's report.

In the meantime I hope that people will temper their tendency to put Rove behind this. As much as I despise the man and do believe he is capable of almost anything, I do not at this point think he had anything to do with this.

Before I leave, you might want to google "piper saratoga" + icing. You can find some very interesting reads about icing problems.

Republican IT consultant Michael Connell, who was killed on December 19 when his Piper Saratoga crashed near the Akron-Canton Airport, had declared an emergency shortly before losing contact with air traffic control.

thank you for your continued reporting on my brother's death. it's frustrating that the mainstream media & the right wing prefer to keep their heads in the sand while ridiculing anyone who questions mike's death. i guess that's what they do best. ignorance is not only bliss, but mandatory.

Hey Brad,
COMMENT #26, was a comment of suspicion and the story smells of the Federal Witness Protection Program. The quick determination of death by a State Trooper is fishy. A check of the Body/DNA is necessary through a trusted reporter/correspondent would help to settle this niggling thought. Remember, the Bushes have had a long history of connection with the FBI (all the way back to Geo.H.W.'s briefing of J.Edgar Hoover at the JFK hit in 1963). Any FBI response is probably smoke. Got your Greg Palast hat on Brad? Connell worked long and close with the Bushes, so, faking his exit would be likely. Just follow his family and he will surface.
I don't like going down this path but it is unanswered and remains more than curious.